Hope For Today

Dear Friends, My friend, Gill and I’ve been enjoying an alternative SPA experience for the past 10 days or so.   Perhaps I should explain this is Gwen Smith’s S ummer P salm A dventure – the idea is to spend time in God’s word, reading 5 Psalms a day, recording, reflecting and responding.   A few mornings back I was praying and talking over with God what I’m passionate about, my hopes and longings, those which have not yet been fulfilled in my life.   I was asking him that if these longings, or desires are really from him, as I believe they are, that he would fulfil them in my life.   I also prayed that he would help me to be patient for his timing, and asked him for the wisdom to know when I need to take action and when I need to just wait for him to open the way. Then later that morning during my SPA time one of the Psalms I was reading was Psalm 37 and the following verse particularly struck me: “Take delight in the Lord ,   ...

Dear Friends, There is much about praising God and celebrating in the Bible.   I believe he wants us to be a people who celebrate and rejoice.   Psalm 145 is a great Psalm about celebrating and praising God, v7 reads “ They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.” (NIV) The month of June in our home is a great month for celebrating.   As I thought about writing this I considered all of the celebrations that happen for my family in June, and how it’s not just about enjoying the celebrations, but recognising that God has provided us with the reason to celebrate and therefore he is worthy of my praise and thanksgiving for all he has given me. Last weekend (16 th ) was Father’s Day – it was a day for my family to celebrate Jason as the father of our children.   God has created him to be a role model for our children, to show them what it means to be a man of God.   He is an example for Josh to copy and shows Jess...

Dear Friends, With Father’s Day this coming Sunday, I find that my thoughts are turning to God as my heavenly Father. I have been so blessed in growing up with a Dad who loved me unconditionally, instructed and guided me, who gave advice and disciplined me when needed.   He isn’t a perfect Dad, no man is, but under God, he is the best Dad he could be and he has provided me with a good example of what God as my heavenly Father is like.   I would not be the woman of faith today without my Dad. God loves us unconditionally and desires us to know him as our Father.   He is always there for us, he instructs, teaches and guides us and disciplines us too.   As our Father he wants the best for us and has a wonderful inheritance waiting for us to claim. “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!”   1 John 3:1 (NLT) Growing up, my Dad used a phrase on various occasions with my sister and m...

Dear Friends, “Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. 8  Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. ”   1 John 2:7-8 (NLT) We need one another if we are to walk the Christian life as God intended. I’m an introvert and reserved by nature.   I’m happy with my own company –I just need a good book to read and a decaffeinated skinny latte with a shot of caramel and I’m well away!   However, I also know how important it is to surround myself with good Christian friends so that I can really flourish as a Christian.   I’ve had people say to me that they don’t need to come to church to live their Christian life.   But that’s not what my bible teaches.   Coming to church won’t make you a Christian, but we all need to be connected, we c...